1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for keeping operating systems free of unwanted files and, more particularly, identifying and removing unwanted files from network servers.
2. Related Art
The prior FileScreen™ product comprises reading a file name of a file and comparing the file name to a list of unauthorized file names to see if the file should be allowed to be saved to a system.
3. Background of the Technology
Despite dramatic reductions in the cost of disk space it remains necessary for those managing servers in a network environment to allocate space to multiple users and enforce policies which limit the kinds of files which are stored in the allocated space.
For example, system administrators often want to prevent users from saving certain files. This can be due to system administrators wishing to save valuable storage space for legitimate files, as opposed to personal files. The prior art has found ways to prevent users from saving certain files. Virus scanners, name mask scanners, and file size scanners have been used. Virus scanners search for viruses, and block a file from being saved if a virus is contained within the file. Name mask scanners review the name mask (e.g., .mp3, .exe, .doc) to see if it is a prohibited name mask and if so, block the file from being saved. File size scanners search for the file name, and if it is a prohibited file, block the file from being saved. These methods usually use an Input/Output (I/O) Filter Driver to detect files that are attempted to be written (saved) to the server. The I/O Filter Driver gathers data and makes the results available to a user or other computer process.
For example, an employer has determined that music files are usually used for personal reasons, and thus does not want employees to be able to save music files on the employer's system. The system administrator could thus program the system so that it would not allow music files (.mp3 files) to be saved. When a user attempts to create a file that has the extension .mp3, then that file creation will fail.
The prior art solutions, however, can be circumvented by the user. For example, the user could save a file with the extension .mp4 in order to circumvent the system administrator's precautions. The offending music file is thus still able to be saved to the system.
There is thus a need to better prevent files, which are commonly and openly exchanged or transmitted over a network, from being saved to a server.